BASKETBALL
Check Diallo led six Motor City players in double figures with 25 points and also grabbed 18 rebounds as the Cruise beat the Maine Celtics 126-112 in a G League game Sunday in Detroit.
Denzel Valentine paced Maine with 27 points. Chris Clemons scored 25, Deonte Burton added 24, and John Bohannon had 12 points and 14 rebounds.
HOCKEY
ECHL: Cédric Desruisseaux scored the only goal in a shootout to give the Trois-Rivières Lions a 3-2 victory over the Maine Mariners at Cross Insurance Arena.
The Mariners forced overtime by erasing a two-goal deficit. Mathew Santos assisted on a goal by Brendan Robbins midway through the second period, then tied it with 1:28 remaining in regulation.
OLYMPICS: Jeremy Colliton has been elevated to head coach of Canada’s men’s hockey team for the Beijing Olympics after Claude Julien was sidelined by an injury.
Hockey Canada said Julien slipped on ice and fractured his ribs during training camp in Switzerland, and medical staff determined he won’t be able to fly to China for the Games.
GOLF
LPGA: Lydia Ko pulled ahead with a birdie on the 15th hole and matched scores with Danielle Kang the rest of the way, closing with a 3-under 69 for a one-shot victory on a chilly day in the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Raton, Florida.
Ko finished at 14-under 274.
U.S. Women’s Open champion Yuka Saso birdied the last two holes for a 67 and was two shots behind.
EUROPEAN TOUR: Viktor Hovland beat Richard Bland with a birdie on the first playoff hole in the Dubai Desert Classic after Rory McIlroy bogeyed the final hole to finish a stroke back in the United Arab Emirates.
Hovland topped Bland with a birdie putt from inside 3 feet on the par-5 18th at Emirates Golf Club.
Hovland closed birdie-eagle-birdie for a 6-under 66. Bland birdied the last for a 68. They finished at 12 under.
SKIING
WORLD CUP: Cornelia Huetter and Federica Brignone tied for first place in a super-G in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, in the final race before the Beijing Olympics.
Brignone looked certain to secure a third super-G win of the season after a dominant performance from start to finish on the Kandahar course, but Huetter made up time on the second half of the course and crossed the line in exactly the same time of 1:18.19.
Huetter’s Austrian teammate, Tamara Tippler, was third fastest, 0.82 back.
With the start of the Olympics looming, several top contenders skipped the races in Garmisch, including overall title contenders Mikaela Shiffrin and Petra Vlhova and super-G world champion Lara Gut-Behrami.
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